Thursday, April 4, 2013

Rainbow Cookies from Bagel Boss and Sugar

When I was a child, my grandmother would travel all the way up to Washington Heights to purchase rainbow cookies for me.  They were my favorite parve dessert, and since she was orthodox, most meals at her house were followed by parve desserts.   They were not really chocolate, but they were covered in chocolate, so I'm going to count it.  They also were not really cookies, but whatever.  Or rainbows, I guess.  Just leave me alone, ok?

Rainbow cookies are a real art. Jewish bakeries know how to make them right -- with almond flour or marzipan.   If you get them at an Italian bakery, it is often just regular wheat flour.  Ironic, as they are an Italian invention and designed from the Italian flag (or so I hear).

Tragically, the bakery of my childhood has since closed, and I have ever since been on the hunt to find rainbow cookies as good.  The best I know of right now are at Bagel Boss.  They also make my favorite bagels in the city.  But the rainbow cookies are just the right combo of chocolate and almond to bring me back to my childhood.


Recently, I stopped by Sugar and tried their version. Among the circles I travel, those circles namely being Leila, Sugar is not the most highly respected bakery, so I was expecting very little.

I was quite surprised to find their rainbow cookies more than adequate, and indeed made with almond flour. A lucky stop!

Bottom Line: How about you, readers? Do you have any advice for me to regain the tatters of my lost childhood? No pressure.

4 comments:

  1. Am I unfairly biased against Sugar? I don't know. I've just been burned too many times before. I don't know that I can try again.

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  2. Whenever I see these cookies, I get my hopes up that they are Nanaimo bars [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanaimo_bar], since the ones my mother used to make were dyed bright colors. I am always disappointed (except in Canada).

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  3. We really enjoy the rainbow cookies at Rocco's (243 Bleecker St) as well as those at De Robertis (176 First Avenue). Always fresh and delicious!

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  4. I have heard Rocco's recommended before. I tried theirs and was surprisingly unimpressed. Perhaps I caught them on an off day. I have been back since and tried other things, but I was similarly unimpressed. Too dry for me, as a whole. De Robertis, though, I have been meaning to try for years, as it is in my neighborhood, but I've never gotten around to it. Definitely going on my to-try list!

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